Posted on 03/05/2019 9:43:47 AM PST by Magnatron
Before making a wave of cutbacks across his department, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk delivered a grim warning to residents of this hardscrabble Appalachian community.
“Law enforcement as we have known for the last four years will not exist,” he posted on Facebook last month. “WE ARE BROKE… LOCK YOUR DOORS, LOAD YOUR GUNS AND GET YOU A BARKING, BITING DOG. If the Sheriff’s office can’t protect you, WHO WILL?”
In a sense, it was political bluster. When he can, Kirk still patrols this remote former coal mining region on the eastern edge of Kentucky, responding to traffic accidents and break-ins, knocking on the doors of suspected drug dealers, serving papers and transporting prisoners.
But with only one other paid law enforcement officer on staff now to help him monitor a 231-square-mile area day and night, his department is stretched to its limit.
“I have to be straight up with my citizens,” the 50-year-old said one morning as he squeezed into his Dodge Durango, switched on his blue lights and siren, and bolted down a winding two-lane road to a house fire 20 miles away. “We can’t be everywhere. We don’t have time to do the job the way it needs to be done.”
(Excerpt) Read more at officer.com ...
Sounds like good advice even with a fully funded police force.
translation: EEEEEEEVIL Republicans with their tax cuts have deprived us of the resources to do our job.
Thank you, Sheriff, for telling bad guys his county is free for the taking.
I suspect that, after his warning, the crime rate may actually go DOWN. And even then, the response to most crime will not be to try, convict and incarcerate the perp but, rather, have an ambulance* come and pick him up. That will save a ton.
*or hearse
the teachers need another day off and more pay for doing it.....priorities you know...
I think he’s telling potential victims, “you can take off the gloves.”
“...his county is free for the taking....”
I’m not so sure it is.
With armed Citizens basically being given a green light to police their own neighborhoods, seems to me the dirtbags will go somewhere else where they know they won’t get shot in the head.
Armed citizenry works.
Police have multiple rules and regulations to follow. A man or woman defending home and family only has ONE: Eliminate the Threat.
Collateral damage from Obama’s war on coal.
If only Mr. Kirk and his citizens were “hispanic” or some other ethnic persuasion favored by the Darlings of DC, his county would be flooded with freebies.
Unfortunately, with a Scots-Irish name like his, they think he’s a gap toothed ridge runner who’s not as funny as Gomer Pyle. And since coal was the way they made their living, they plan to kill that even deader when they finally get rid of Don Trump.
Then all the po’ whites of his county can move to the fringes of some urban area to become beggars, which is the way the world is supposed to work in the minds of Pelosi and her vile acolytes.
we’re talking the appalachians here, they’re more armed in that region than the nearest army base. They’ll be fine. It’s the paperwork where the sheriff’s screwed.
I moved to rural south central KY 8 years ago. I’ve driven most of the state. I think that if this exact same problem existed in Manhattan, it would be end of the world style mayhem. I think in this neck of the woods it just might reduce the crime rate.
What he should have said is, if you witness or are the victim of a crime, shoot, shovel and shutup.
“This ailing county is one of a swath of rural mountain communities struggling to maintain essential public services as coal mines shutter, leaving them with dwindling jobs, residents and taxes.
In the last decade, Martin County’s population has dropped from about 13,000 to 11,500 as the number of workers employed by coal companies has fallen from 866 to 57. County funding from severance taxes companies pay on coal removal has plunged from $931,800 to $83,900 a year.”
Explain please how this is a result of any Republican policy.
The major industries in eastern Kentucky have for years been: Living on disability; filing law suits; and dealing oxycontin.
bookmark
Chris Knight
‘Down the River’
https://youtu.be/3rYanTJCjmQ
“....Wilson’s cousin better find a place to hide.......” This song gives me chills...
I think they know it already. However, they might be even more cautious after him telling the residents to arm up.
I asked my nephew if he would consider breaking into a house in my town if he was told that 50% of the homes keep loaded shotguns. He said Hell no.
My paternal kin...including my dad...were all Kentucky ridge runners, farmers or both. Grandfather born same year that a wonderful rifle was born....1873. Used to tell me very “interesting” stories when I was a kid.
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